Frugal Families: Slash Your Grocery Bill with Coupon Mom

My mother is the queen of coupon clipping.  She would even get extra copies of the coupon inserts, scour the circulars for savings and combine coupons, store sales and double and triple coupons to get huge deals on her groceries and toiletries.  This all took a Herculean effort.  While she did save a tidy sum each week and got a boatload of stuff for free, this approach is not for the faint of heart.  Nowadays, another coupon clipping guru has developed an amazing online tool that gets you the savings you want with a lot less work.  Allow me to introduce you to the Coupon Mom.

Coupon Mom is a great way to maximize your savings while reducing the effort spent clipping those coupons.  I call this targeted coupon shopping.  You can visit her website to get the specifics, but here is a quick summary of how it works:

1. Save your coupon inserts and write the date of it on the front in marker.  There are three companies that provide these inserts each week:  Redplum, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and Smartsource.  Just keep doing this each week and find a nice place for your coupon insert stack.
2. Peruse the couponmom website to get the week’s deals by store and state.
3. Select the deals you want and you can email the list to yourself.
4. The deals will list the specific coupon to use by date and coupon insert.  You simply gather the appropriate insert, and find and clip the coupons you want.

In fine frugal fashion, CouponMom.com is free and is paid for by advertising.  They maintain a database of coupons by date and match the store sales with current, unexpired coupons.  With Coupon Mom, you only clip the coupons you want and you reap bigger savings by using the coupons when the products are on sale.

Still skeptical?  Being an Industrial Engineer by trade, I conducted a personal test to assess the viability of this project.  My time study revealed the following:  It took less than 5 minutes to browse through the site and generate a list of the deals I liked for 3 stores (Giant, Walgreen’s and CVS).  In fact, I did it on my smartphone while watching TV.  Once I printed out my emailed list, it took me 10 minutes to go through the coupon inserts and find the coupons I wanted for one store.

With the kiddies in bed, I proceeded to my test store, Giant, that night with my banana, water bottle, CouponMom list and coupons in hand.   I scanned the aisles and was able to get most of the items I wanted and check out in 30 minutes.  Things were definitely much faster without the kids.  I was able to find the sale products and match them with my coupons without too much trouble.

Here are my stats for this quick trip:  I bought 19 items, which retailed for $70.98.  I ended up paying $38.69, just a little more than half the price.  Most of these items are loss leaders, or the items that are on sale that week, such as the buy one get one free pork chops and the 10 for $10 specials.  However, I was also able to use 3 coupons in order to get shampoo for $0.89, a free box of bandages, and four large boxes of brand name cereal for $1.75 each.

The end result: for an extra 15 minutes worth of work, I saved $5 in coupons.  That’s like earning $20 an hour!  I also saved time preselecting the items I wanted for sale without having to bother scouring over the circular and comparing prices.  CouponMom makes coupon clipping worth the effort.

This article appeared originally as a blog post for the Frugal Families blog on Chesapeake Family in October 2010.

Starting an Allowance

I always envisioned starting an allowance for my little guy when he turned eight.  This was not a magic number, but I figured he’d be reading, doing math and prepared to handle an allowance.  When he entered First Grade, he would ask for a dollar here and a dollar there for the latest thing at the School Store that his other buddies were buying.  It became clear that an allowance would enable him to have “purchasing power” without him henpecking me for days on end.  I decided to accelerate my allowance plan two years early.

I started with a low dollar amount, $2 every week, and explained to him that just like his father; he would get paid on Friday, after school.  He loved the idea and the best thing is that he never badgers me for money anymore.  The monetary amount is small enough that he really has to save in order to buy a big ticket item.

Establishing an allowance has really allowed my son to have choices, learn about budgeting and experiment with money in a safe environment.  For more tips on starting an allowance for money savvy kids, check out my article in my Mothering Matters column on Patch.

Our Christmas 2010 Memories

Naked potty training..... Saltines.... Two trips to Patient First... The poor boy dry heaving every hour :(. Twittering... Melted fake thin mints..... Making truffles... The lunar eclipse... Abuela Mati visits... We all camp out at home except for my jaunts to the stores and doctor... Sturgeon Train Garden with the Witts... Getting our Christmas tree and "family portrait"... Operation Cookie Drop.. A new primary doctor??  Raccoon eyes...  Another one down for the count...  passing the "bowl"... Biscuit tosses his cookies...  Zhu zhu pets and Mario Galaxy... sandwiches for Christmas dinner...  Late Christmas Cards and a salvaged visit to see family for New Year's instead.  Whew....

Shop for Groceries to Save on Gas

If you shop at Giant, there is a way you can save on gas without trying too hard. Just shop. That’s it. Seriously. It wasn’t too long ago that ridiculously fluctuating gas prices sent many of us online to find competitive gas prices. A membership to BJ’s boasts a pretty competitive price for gas too. But this little deal can rival discount gas prices, and you can use it at any Shell station in the Maryland Giant shopping area.

Here’s how it works: For every $100 spent at Giant, you can save ten cents per gallon of gas at any Shell station. If you spend $300 in a month, that results in saving thirty cents per gallon! That’s as good as what I can get at BJ’s! The points do expire and last only 30 days, but you can track your points on the Giant Food website after registering your Giant Card.

Getting to the savings may not be initially obvious. To use the discount at the Shell station, look for the “Use Giant Card” prompt BEFORE you pay for the gas. You will have a chance to scan your Giant Card or enter your phone number. After this, you can then pay for your gas using your credit or debit card. If you swipe your card for payment first, you will not have a chance to apply the Giant discount. (Yes, I’ve actually cancelled a gas transaction or two if I’ve forgotten the Giant Card prompt). If there are Giant savings, the pump will show the gas savings after you have prepaid for the gas.

To maximize your savings, use Coupon Mom to find coupons get the best deals at Giant. Giant will also have coupons in their circulars for gas friendly items and even more gas savings. In one shopping trip, I only spent $50 dollars, but managed to get 300 gas points because of the coupon in the circular that week.

I have even checked my savings totals on Giant website using my smartphone to see if it would be worth the trip to BJ’s instead. On weeks when I have a lot of savings, I fill up the tank. For weeks when my savings points are low, I pump less gas. Now you can save money at the grocery store and getting there too.

Maribel Ibrahim always has her eyes open for easy savings. Subscribe to this feed or follow her on Twitter @TheFrugalWriter to find great deals around town.

Frugal Food: English Muffin Pizza and Protein Packed Tuna Melts

You may have read my previous post about doing battle with your kid’s school lunchbox. Here are two great recipes that make great, healthy, filling snacks when your crew comes home hungry:

English Muffin Pizza

Ingredients:
1 Whole Wheat English Muffin, split in half (two pizzas)
1½ T Marinara sauce
½ mozzarella stick

Directions:
Spread the marinara sauce on each muffin half. Grate the mozzarella stick over the pizzas. Note, you can double the recipe (2 English muffins to make 4 pizzas) in order to use the whole stick. (You could grate any mozzarella, but I always have mozzarella sticks on hand to pack in lunches…) Now, place it in your toaster oven or convection oven or broiler and heat through until the cheese is melted.

I started doing this with bagels, but when I realized that I could buy English muffins for cheaper and that the muffins had less calories, I made the switch. My son devours these! DO NOT microwave these. It is faster, but the bread will get rubbery.


Protein Packed Tuna Melts (4 sandwiches)

1 can Tuna packed in water, drained
1 can Sardines, drained
1 T Ranch Dressing (or Mayo)
1 t Season All Spice (or our family favorite, Adobo, a traditional Spanish spice)
8 slices Whole Grain Bread
4 Cheddar Cheese slices (the real stuff, not the processed cheese food)

Combine the first four ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. Be sure to break up the sardines to disguise them! Spread the mix on a slice of bread and top with cheese slice. Top with another slice of bread and place in your sandwich maker or Panini grill. I actually use my George Foreman grill. If you don’t have any of these, you can go old school and just grill it in a pan spritzed with cooking spray. Use a plate to press the sandwich and repeat after flipping the sandwich with a spatula.
Many thanks to Missy Chase Lapine, The Sneaky Chef, for the idea of adding the sardines. Mixed in with the tuna, it is a great way to boost protein intake and Omega 3 fatty acids and it only subtly affects the taste.

If you are watching calories, you can use less filling or half a slice of cheese for each sandwich.

I enjoy eating these quick meals just as much as my kids do after a long day at school!

This post originally appeared in Maribel's Frugal Families blog for Chesapeake Family in October 2010.

Use Your Neck to Try on Pants

The weather is still great for taking advantage of yard sales and gearing up for the fall. What’s a mom to do when she wants to outfit her brood without the luxury of a fitting room? A tried and true method of checking whether a pair of pants will fit you is to zip and button the front and wrap the waist around your neck.

While you may look silly pretending the pants have turned into a cape, this method really works. If you can get the sides of the pants to meet comfortably, the pants fit! If the sides don’t meet, the pants will be too tight. 

How does this work? It might not be scientifically precise, but the size of your neck does tend be approximately half the size of your waist. Additionally, as a person gains or loses weight, the proportion remains consistent. A body builder or a really thin person might not fit these sizing parameters, but for the rest of us, this is a great way to ensure that a good deal on pants is really a good deal.

My sister has known of this method for years and has advised her yard sailing buddies about it. In fact, some of the sellers in the New Jersey flea market she shops at are now dishing out this advice - because it really does work.

This article first appeared as one of Maribel's blog posts on Chesapeake Family in September 2010

Saving Money with School Lunches and Snacks

Lunchbox battles start early on in the school years, but here are some tricks of the trade that keep my first grader happy and decently fed without too much hassle.

Many school cafeterias offer healthy options, but that’s not really helpful if he can still choose to have hot dogs with those chips for lunch. I’ve decided that it is worth the effort to pack the boy’s lunch, save a few bucks and make some attempt at giving him healthy choices.

Here are my lunch packing rules of the road. Based on your child’s preferences, some of these may not work for you. The key is to find what does work and use that to leverage healthier eating options at a fraction of the cost.

1. Don’t pack the fruit! Let’s face it. It’s too easy for kids to just dump unwanted food in the garbage can and trust me, they are doing it. So, since I know my guy won’t eat the fruit while he’s at school, I don’t even bother to put it in there. Instead, I pack raisins, dried fruit, granola bars, dried cranberries or yogurt covered raisins. Yes, there is a high amount of sugar, but the kid is also getting the fiber and carbs from the fruit also. Apple & Eve Fruitables are the juice box of choice in our house because I can buy them in bulk at BJ’s, they have no high fructose corn syrup and contain 2 servings of VEGGIES, that’s right, veggies such as carrots ingeniously disguised with berries, banana, orange or other fruit.

2. Pack snacks you know they like, even if it’s not a meal. Great options here are cheese sticks, dried cereal, pudding (calcium!), portable yogurt and a favorite sandwich. Some kids hate bread, so flatbread is a great way to make many interesting sandwiches with whatever filler they prefer. Pack crackers and lunch meat and they can assemble their own sandwiches. Again, the name of the game is to get them to eat the food you actually pack. The next tip will allay your fears that your child is not properly fed.

3. Flip the script. My son has a nice hot snack as soon as he gets off the bus. Some great ideas are tuna melts, grilled egg salad sandwiches, leftover spaghetti, and homemade bagels pizzas. The key here is that I can see that he is actually eating the food. Also, since I packed snacks that are not too hateful and that I know he loves, I’m sure he’s eaten those also. Here is where the leverage comes in – he’s already had all his “goodies” for the day, so now you can clamp down and serve hearty food at home. Again, when the boy says he’s hungry, I offer the fruit, whole wheat, protein and the other “good stuff” that was missing in his lunchbox. Wham…. Got him!

4. Dipping sauces are magic! Peanut butter, ketchup or ranch dressing, hummus are condiments that can encourage a picky eater. I will slice an apple and arrange it on a plate with peanut butter in the center. This does not pack well for lunch, but is great for an at home snack. Chicken and veggies may also be tastier with a bit of dressing. Again, for our crew, these things don’t pack well, so I make sure to serve them at home after the portable snacks have been polished off.

5. Prepackage it yourself. Those 100 calorie snacks are convenient, but they are nothing but a portion controlled size of the regular thing. Save a few bucks by buying snacks and prepacking them yourself in snack bags. Doing a week’s worth of bags afterschool one day makes lunch packing a snap. Also, you have a wider variety of snacks to choose from this way.

This article originally appeared as one of Maribel's Frugal Families blog posts on Chesapeake Family.